Articles by David Chartier

David ChartierContributor, Macworld

David has been covering Apple and how to get the most out of its products since 2005. Now a freelance tech writer, he runs Finer Things in Tech, jots down thoughts at DavidChartier.com, occasionally starts outlining the great American tech novel, and might still get to snowboard Breckenridge one more time.

Smule, one of the biggest names in iOS music apps, is back with a virtual violin app and a few new tricks. Magic Fiddle can teach you some basics and style of playing the (virtual) violin, let you share your best performances with the world, and challenge you to earn trophies and badges.

There is no shortage of iPad apps for creating basic documents and jotting down notes. But a new text editor targets developers and Web designers by supporting more than 80 development languages, syntax highlighting, WebDAV for exchanging files, and more.

You use multiple apps to trudge through a sea of e-mail, tweets, and Facebook posts. Twezr offers a unified inbox that collects all this correspondence and your contacts from every service, then prioritizes everything based on which contacts matter the most.

This iOS remote app for Roku's Netflix and Amazon media player gains a bunch of new features and integration, from an Instant Replay button to on-device Netflix queue browsing and full keyboard support.

A long overdue public beta for Skype's Mac client brings the software almost completely on par with its Windows counterpart, with Group Video Chatting, a completely redesigned interface, and better integration with Mac OS X.

The social network on Wednesday released some major new features for its iPhone app, including retailer coupons for Places check-ins and access to Groups. The company's founder also offered some terse comments on how it perceives the iPad, but no closure as to why it has not released an official app for Apple's tablet.

Apple has thrown open the App Store's doors and asked developers to begin submitting apps designed for iOS 4.2, the upcoming release of its mobile OS and the first version that will work across iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Apple recently replaced the Genius Sidebar with activity from Ping, its new music social network. But now the company has reversed some of this decision, quietly introducing the iTunes Sidebar that combines the two music recommendation systems.